Bob Beckett - Commitment to Conquer: Redeeming Your City by Strategic Intercession

1997 by Bob Beckett

Published by Chosen Books
A division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.chosenbooks.com

Ebook edition created 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Old Testament Scripture quotations identified AMP are from the Amplified Bible, Old Testament. Copyright 1965, 1987 by The Zondervan Corporation. Used by permission.

Verses marked TLB are taken from The Living Bible, 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations identified KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

ISBN 978-1-4412-3152-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

To my wife, Susan, who has remained my inspiration and encouragement. Without her wisdom and insight, the events of this story would not have been possible.

And to my loving daughters, Sharon Anderson and Susanne Hales, who have been a constant joy and blessing to their father.

Contents

Foreword

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Revelation 2:11

Almost any Christian of reasonable maturity is familiar with this statement made by Jesus. He made it not once but fully seven times in Revelation 23. Our need to be willing to hear new things from God takes on special urgency in times like these, when changes in the world around us and in the churches we attend are accelerating at a breathtaking pace.

The decade of the 1990s will not tolerate business as usual. The harvest has never been greater, the Kingdom of God has never advanced so rapidly, and for the first time in history a generation has the potential of fulfilling Jesus Great Commission. Satans back is against the wall, so to speak, and he has great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time (Revelation 12:12). Gods armies are on the march, determined as never before to turn nations and people groups from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God (Acts 26:18). We might expect, therefore, for God to equip His armies with the weapons of warfare appropriate to the task at hand.

This is exactly what He has been doing. Those of us from the more traditional streams of Christianity are becoming aware of some powerful spiritual tools and methodologies that we were not even thinking of ten years ago. We are on a steep (but exciting!) learning curve. The three most significant new spiritual insights that God is providing the Body of Christ in these days are, in my opinion, strategic-level spiritual warfare, spiritual mapping and identificational repentance.

As the decade began, I was privileged to be named coordinator of the International Spiritual Warfare Network. In my task of gathering individuals who had accumulated some knowledge and experience of spiritual warfare, I observed that most of those who came to the meetings were leaders of parachurch ministries such as YWAM, International Fellowship of Intercessors, Generals of Intercession, Every Home for Christ, End-Time Handmaidens and many other such organizations. Very few were practicing local church pastors.

Then Cindy Jacobs introduced me to Pastor Bob Beckett. (The story of the meeting is told later in this book.) When I met Bob, I knew immediately I had found the pearl of great price for which I had been searching: a local church pastor who not only understood strategic-level spiritual warfare, spiritual mapping and identificational repentance, but one who preached these things and, together with his congregation, was putting them energetically into practice in the community to which God had called him. Best of all, I liked the positive, tangible changes taking place in the churches and community of Hemet, California, as an obvious result of the prayers and actions of The Dwelling Place Church, led by Bob and Susan Beckett.

By that time I had begun teaching courses on these subjects at Fuller Seminary and needed a practitioner to balance my role as scholar and theoretician. Bob agreed to help me. I will never forget the day he first came in, toward the end of a one-week intensive course. The students had been fairly well satisfied with what I had given them to that point, but when Bob taught his lesson, it was as if I had plugged the class into a 220-volt outlet. Electricity flowed and sparks were flying everywhere! Then I took the class on a spiritual mapping field trip to Hemet. Never have I seen such enthusiastic evaluations. Even now students refer to that course as the one when we go to Hemet.

Needless to say, Bob has helped me teach ever since, both on the masters and doctoral levels.

You may not be able to enroll in Fuller Seminary, but you can experience the same electricity by reading this book. Commitment to Conquer is the first book to unite the awesome spiritual insights of the 1990s through the eyes and heart of a practicing pastor. His material on how spiritual power is released through sincere commitment to the land and community is one of those groundbreaking, pioneering insights that you will see nowhere else, one that is destined to change the attitudes and ministries of thousands and thousands of pastors across America and around the world.

If you are one of those who have been wondering if all the noise we are hearing these days about spiritual warfare really works, you need look no further. The book you have in your hands will convince you that it does indeed work. Bob Becketts practical application of strategic-level spiritual warfare, spiritual mapping and identificational repentance has made Hemet the city that, to my knowledge, has experienced the most measurable transformation by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Bob Beckett is one of those who has an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Before you finish this book, you will be hearing those things as well.

C. Peter Wagner
Fuller Theological Seminary

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge Ben and Ann Beaird, who took a very lost and lonely young man into their lives and saw him through it all to hear the call; Dick and Betty Mills, who have stood by us over the years with encouragement, support and prayer; and, finally, the staff and congregation of The Dwelling Place, my extended family and friends, where I joyfully carry out that calling.

Any demands that God makes upon us are always logical and reasonable from Gods point of view.

Can a community really be changed? Can the spiritual atmosphere over a city ever be different? Can we as Christians be used to effect positive changes in schools, reduce drug problems, decrease gang activity or get pornography off our streets?

The answer is yes! This book is meant to encourage pastors and laypersons alike who want to see results in their communities. Through commitment to our cities, understanding what is going on around us and devoting ourselves to prayer, we can see the Kingdom of God come powerfully into our communities.